Civic Group: Bond Ignores Neighborhood

June 20, 1999|By THOMAS MONNAY Staff Writer

DANIA BEACH — A proposed bond issue to finance infrastructure improvements is causing concerns among some southwest civic leaders, who say the bond advisory committee has ignored projects they requested for their community.

Willie Hill, president of the College Gardens Neighborhood Association, said he is planning an awareness campaign to let southwest residents know that "they are getting the short end of the bond" issue.

"The southwest section should not be in favor of that bond issue because all that we will get out of this is higher taxes and nothing else," he said.

College Gardens is bounded by Federal Highway on the east, Ely Boulevard on the west, Sheridan Street on the south and Stirling Road on the north.

The proposed bond issue, which is scheduled to be voted on in a November referendum, would finance such things as tennis courts and new buildings for municipal parks, improvements to the city's beach and landscaping in some parts of the city.

Hill said he is disappointed because the committee has ignored several requests for improvements in College Gardens. He said his association wants an after-school program for children, a multicultural center and a community center on the Boisey Waiters waterfront property.

The bond committee, which has been taking suggestions from residents for improvement projects, has not prepared a final report of projects it will recommend for consideration.

But a preliminary list of projects the committee released May 23 shows that it supports more than $10 million worth of improvements for several sections of the city.

The amount includes $1.44 million for Modello Park in the northwest area; $1.3 million for Frost Park in the southeast section, and $900,000 for Meli Park, a southwest area park that is not in College Gardens.

Hill has a copy of the temporary list, which also includes projects that the committee would exclude from the bond issue. Nothing is earmarked for College Gardens.

"Once again, it shows the city's lack of concern to responding to citizens' input on key issues that we think are relevant to bring up the quality of life in our neighborhood as equal to that of the other points of the city," Hill said.

Regardless of what projects the committee recommends, however, commissioners will make the final decision.

Commissioner Bob Mikes said the City Commission might not approve everything the committee recommends.

For example, Mikes said he will not support projects that can be financed by grants. He also said commissioners might add other projects to the committee's list to make sure all sections of the city receive equal treatment.

"This is round one," Mikes said of the committee's work. "Round two is when it gets to the commission."

Meanwhile, activist Judy Usifer, who recently was appointed to the bond committee, is pushing hard to have the referendum election postponed until March 2000 so the city can piggy-back on the presidential primary ballot.

At her request, the committee agreed on June 7 to ask commissioners to postpone the referendum. When the committee will make a formal request has not been determined.

Usifer and Mikes said postponing the referendum also would give city officials enough time to publicize details of the proposal.

If the referendum takes place in November, Usifer and Mikes said the city will not have time to tell property owners how they would pay for the bond issue.

Mikes said people need to know whether the proposal would result in higher property taxes and if the city's overall tax base would be enough to support a bond issue.

Mikes said the commission did not do a good job instructing staff to research those facts before they created the bond issue committee.

Thomas Monnay can be reached at tmonnay@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7924